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Product Description

Image showing colors for EVH in the upper north west corner of the USThis page includes a general description of the product, please consult the schedule and version pages for information specific to each release.

LANDFIRE's (LF) Existing Vegetation Height (EVH) represents the average height of the dominant vegetation for a 30-m cell.

Canopy height is generated separately for tree, shrub, and herbaceous lifeforms using training data and other geospatial layers. EVH is determined by the average height weighted by species cover and based on the Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) lifeform.

  • Decision tree models using field reference data, lidar, Landsat, and ancillary data are developed separately for each lifeform. Decision tree relationships are used to generate lifeform specific height class layers, which are merged into a single composite EVH layer.
  • Disturbance data is used to develop products for LANDFIRE Reference Database (LFRDB) plot filtering and to ensure that disturbances from recent years are included that were not visible in the source imagery.

LF 2016 Remap and beyond includes a 90-kilometer buffer along the 1,500 miles of the eastern and southern borders AK shares with Canada. Then with the LF 2020 update, and future updates, for the Conterminous United States (CONUS) a 90-kilometer buffer into Mexico is also included.

LF uses EVH in several subsequent layers, including the development of the fuel products.

 

Existing Vegetation Height Resources